208 



CONFEDERATE STATES. 



agents, by impressment, instead of entering the 

 market as others do, and purchasing them, it 

 deprives the people of the right which they 

 claim of bearing their just proportion of the 

 burdens as well as of the benefits of the Gov- 

 ernment. The wisdom of twenty centuries is 

 against this policy, and I here affirm that it 

 will not support the army and will ruin the 

 republic. Already it has deprived many of their 

 honest earnings, and left their families in pen- 

 ury, want, and dependence, and I call on you 

 to right them. 



" Such a system has never been pursued with 

 profit to the country, from the time of Alex- 

 ander the Great down to the present time. Gen. 

 Scott did not practise it, even when in the 

 enemy's country. From the whole of his march 

 from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, he ob- 

 tained his supplies by purchases, and obtain- 

 ed them plentifully, while our armies, which 

 depend for their support on impressments, 

 have often been upon .half rations all over 

 the country, even where provisions are abun- 

 dant. 



"There are said to be nine millions of people 

 in our Confederacy. There are eleven hundred 

 thousand hi population, black and white, in our 

 State, and provisions are ample for the support 

 of all, if they were only distributed ; and yet the 

 course which has been pursued in obtaining sup- 

 plies for the army has reduced it almost to the 

 point of starvation, even in the midst of plenty ; 

 and, in the name of the Constitution and of jus- 

 tice, I have come to protest against it. It is your 

 business, as legislators, to provide for the wants 

 of those who may have suffered from this system 

 in your midst, and I hope yon will do it. If it 

 requires taxation, impose it ; if a loan, make it ; 

 whatever is necessary, do it, that the families 

 of those who are in need of provisions and 

 clothing, whether because what they have had 

 has been taken from them by the Government, 

 or whether the absence of their natural pro- 

 tectors in the military service of the country 

 has deprived them of support, do all that is ne- 

 cessary to make them comfortable. You have 

 the power, and you should exercise it. 



" Why cannot the Government go into the 

 market as others do, and purchase their sup- 

 plies? It is said that the people will not sell 

 for the currency at reasonable rates. Well, 

 if they will not sell for one price, pay an- 

 other. You have the power of raising what is 

 necessary for the country. If one dollar is not 

 sufficient, raise ten pay just compensation, 

 market price for all commodities, not monopo- 

 lized, and tax those who are able to pay. "Why 

 should all the burdens fall on one class, as it 

 has heretofore fallen almost exclusively on the 

 agriculturists ? Why should the capitalist, the 

 merchant, manufacturer, the speculator, the ex- 

 tortioner be passed over ? They have remain- 

 ed at home during the war, and made money. 

 Why should not their money be taken to carry 

 on the war as well as the productions of the 

 agriculturists? The latter are not a favored 



class ; there are no exempts among them ; they 

 have been the greatest sufferers in this war, 

 both in blood and treasure. 



"But shall I proceed? If a man advocates 

 such principles as these, it is to be said he is 

 against the Administration. 



" I say to you all in candor, that the course our 

 Government has pursued in obtaining its sup- 

 plies has sowed the seeds of discontent broad- 

 cast over the land, and is generating hostility 

 to the Government itself. Look at the practi- 

 cal workings of it in our own State. In the 

 northern section of it the hand of Providence 

 has been laid heavily upon them for the last 

 two years. Last year the rams were withheld 

 from them. Sterility cursed^ and old mother 

 Earth seemed to forget her children. This year 

 the frost has come, and, in addition, the foot of 

 the invader has been set upon the land, and 

 blighted the prospects of the agriculturists. 

 Famine, war, and worse than impressment, luis 

 laid its hand upon them, and you are asked to 

 make provision for the support of many who 

 will be unable, from these causes, to support 

 themselves, and I hope you will do it. In ad- 

 dition to this, the impressing agent has gone 

 around, and, in many cases, robbed the families 

 of their meagre support for the year. As a 

 consequence, the soldiers in the field have be- 

 come discontented, and desertions have taken 

 place. 



" It is useless to attempt to conceal these 

 facts. You know them to be true, and our 

 enemy knows them to be true. The part of wis- 

 dom is to rectify the evils, not to conceal them. 

 It is your duty, as the guardians of the peo- 

 ple of Georgia, to speak out, and see to it that 

 the republic shall suffer no detriment at the 

 hands of those whose duty it is to guard and 

 defend her interests. You are bound to see to 

 it that the rights and liberty of the people are 

 maintained." 



The embarrassment which arose from this 

 state of affairs was greatly increased by the de- 

 cay of the railroads. The means of transpor- 

 tation possessed in the Confederate States have 

 become more and more limited during each 

 year of the war. In Virginia the railroads were 

 on the point pf giving out at the beginning of 

 1863. Their rate of speed was reduced to ten 

 miles an hour as a maximum, and their tonnage 

 diminished from twenty-five to fifty per cent. 

 This change in the rate of speed and quantity of 

 freight was made through necessity. The wood 

 work of the roads had rotted, and the machin- 

 ery was worn out, and owing to the stringent 

 enforcement of tiie conscription law among the 

 men employed by the railroad companies, they 

 had not been able, with all their efforts, to re- 

 new the one or repair the other. This failure 

 extended to the roads in all the States. The 

 scarcity of iron for rails was another serious 

 injury, which could not be repaired. In this 

 respect, the pressure of the blockade was more 

 severely felt than in any other. So completely 

 were these roads a part of the military system, 



